The area leading to my garage is large concrete slabs, probably ~50y old, not the greatest shape, with many cuts (from when an addition was built) and cracks, but it's not in the budget to remove/replace any time soon.
I'm trying to understand what product(s) I'll need to address:
1. gaps between concrete slabs and between the asphalt which makes up the driveway and the concrete slabs (ranging from 1/4" to 3/4")
2. cracks in the concrete slabs (mostly ~1/4")
3. the big gap between the concrete blocks and the garage apron. about 1-2" down is soil. I expect to use some sort of backing on the soil then ____(?)
As you can see the concrete is in very poor shape overall. I believe this is due to 50 years of Canadian winters, general neglect and, abuse of ice-melting salt.
OK, lets be blunt, you have a bunch of old, what did you say 50 year old concrete, you really got your monies worth, time to remove and replace and quit thinking about band aids to restore something that has outlived it's usefulness!
Fair enough but you assume I've owned the property for longer than a year.. I've got a lot of work to do any need to prioritize. Currently turning the property into a triplex so dont want to throw money around.
I'll be removing the poured concrete in the pics above and addressing some leaking in the foundation. But I plan to keep the slabs (whose depth is measured in feet not inches). At least the 2 slabs that are in front of the garage. (there's 4 in total)
So the question remains:
If i dont want to spend tens of thousands of dollars right now:
How do i address cracks:
- between slab and asphalt
- between slab and slab
- between slab and apron
Recommendations welcome.
also adding a google satellite view Marq. The red circle is whats pictured, it's only a fraction of the lot. The property is almost all concrete/aspalt so I def want to pull some up. It's a tight squeeze for equipment as well but it's going to happen some day so I do agree with your point...
I did decide to remove one of the slabs. If you've seen any of my other threads, I recently buried a downspout and fed it to a retaining wall. The slab that was removed allowed the downspout to be buried
There was an unbelievable amount of concrete. It was poured on a slope. So while the edge I could see (near the house) was about 4" thick, it got to about 10"+ think on the opposite end of the slab. This pic is near the middle. Also, there was some rebar chucked in randomly.
The main reason for doing this was the concrete that was poured (after the slabs) and sat against the house. Due to poor workmanship (ie. didn't tamp the soil frequently enough), the soil settled, the concrete sank, and it pulled down the plastic vapor barrier. A bit of moisture was apparent in the basement. When I pulled up this poured concrete I found a cavity about the 2x size of a basketball where the yellow circle is. It definitely didn't help that the downspout was originally directed here (yellow arrow)
So my partial solution is as follows:
- kept the 2 remaining original slabs (I believe they will never be removed)
- removed all poorly poured (sunken and cracked) concrete
- redid waterproofing in the area where new concrete was being poured (you can see it ends at the window well, for now)
- properly poured new concrete, anchored to the foundation and the existing slab & reinforced with rebar (back) and mesh (side) with a nice slope away from the house
I think this is the right balance of cost and return on investment.
You should be putting control joints in that before it cracks on its own. Its going to want to crack exactly at the outside corner, on the thin side, and the long wide side should have a joint in the middle if that section is more than 1.5:1.
The pics are a bit old, took a while to find the time to post again.
Once everything dried, I basically cut 4 straight lines, making 5 squares/rectangles. Hard to see with the snow now, but here's a quick pic from inside:
I think Im going to try doing a soil cement floor in my barn. I'm going to try a small area and see how it turns out. From what I can find online you put about half inch portland cement on top of the dirt and then till it in while you spray it with some water. My question is can I just use a hand tamper to pack it down and is there any other steps that I'm missing. my floor right now is some kind of mixture of loose dirt and stone.
I’ll try to explain this briefly:
Old house in North Toronto. The City eliminated the ‘laneway' behind the houses and gave the to the property owners on either side. The owners of my home at the time, chose to build an extension to the garage.
From what I can tell, they supported the extra few feet of the garage as well as a new retaining wall/wall to the right of the garage with stacked concrete cylinders. This was 40y ago?
The 1-2 ft ‘retaining wall’ (made of cylinders) beside the garage has since given way. The 2-2.5 ft wall that stood on it, made of concrete block/poured concrete, supported by the metal poles has fallen.
I’ve removed about 20 cinderblocks and patio stones that had been piled there as a makeshift solution.
What’s left is the concrete cylinders, and the metal bars that were the part of the former wall.
I’m looking for advice around how to address this.
I’m not terribly concerned about this area eroding and am prepared to do repairs from time to time if necessary. A permanent solution would be best.
Open to any recommendations.
Pictures are walking along the side of the garage approaching the wall, then from the opposite side, facing the wall/back of garage.